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singlehanded close navigation

2K views 24 replies 14 participants last post by  gamayun 
#1 ·
Looking for ideas on shallow water navigation with no bow person to watch. Has any one tried a camera?
 
#4 ·
it depends on where you are. Here in Southern NJ, the back bays are a pretty uniform opaque green. The oceans are much more clear and you can generally tell shallow areas from deep by the colour
 
#6 ·
Kind of goes along with a thread that's active now about the age of sailing.... the gizmos. Trying to watch a screen and sail the boat is akin to a pilot chasing his VSI while flying VFR. The possibility exists that one would get focased in on the screen and forget to watch what's going on all around and have an "oops".

I'd strongly advise against such procedure and follow Oyserman's .02. If you have a depth sounder with an alarm, you can set that to any depth... when that rascal says "beep".... you take it from there.
 
#7 ·
I wonder if a fish finder could be rigged on the bow with the screen in the cockpit to help navigate in shallow water. Where I sail (Pamlico Sound) the water is dark tea color and you cant see a whole lot.
 
#8 · (Edited)
markwestis post is on the mark...

have some form of controllable autopilot or manual method of steering the boat from the bow(I have used lines to blocks to a tiller before) and you can perch yourself on the bow pit, or even at the mast a little higher up so you can get a better visual of the waters you are travelling...

I have often stood on the mast winches on bigger boats that raises you like 5 feet or so off the cabin deck...this is usually a much better point of view than at deck level and helps contrast those areas you are looking to avoid...

safe sailing!

ps this is assuming you have a depthsounder btw...if not you can navigate slowly with a long pole or stick and sound the areas you are navigating, if its murky...another method of course is the classic line and weight with markers...I like the pole cause if string enough and on small boats you can move yourself if need be...
 
#9 ·
The problem with the remote AP idea is you still may need to suddenly stop and reverse.

btw - that functionality is available too - we watched a guy dock his 55 MY with a remote from his foredeck last summer... gearshift, bow and stern thrusters all by wireless remote. I think the only limitation he had was no throttle, it was all at idle. Money fixes all!! ;)
 
#10 ·
ergo the GO SLOWLY PART

and yes money can fix it all...but Ive seen some stuff that money intended to fix on boats and MAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAN we could start a whole new thread on miracle money fixes! jajajaja

cheers
 
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#11 ·
I think my point got missed

I travel in the north channel in the great lakes where depth can go from 60ft to 1ft instantly. I am planning on going to the caribbean and I am told you need a bow watch to get into some places and was looking for any ideas. The problem with remote steering is you can not stop remotely. I do not know how well forward looking depth sounders work for coral heads.
 
#13 ·
Re: I think my point got missed

I travel in the north channel in the great lakes where depth can go from 60ft to 1ft instantly. I am planning on going to the caribbean and I am told you need a bow watch to get into some places and was looking for any ideas. The problem with remote steering is you can not stop remotely. I do not know how well forward looking depth sounders work for coral heads.
Well I am down in the Caribbean and have single handed through the Bahamas and Turks and Caicos where the skinny stuff is without a problem. Just wear a pair of polarized sunglasses and make sure you can stand up high at the wheel so you have a reasonable angle over the bow.

Do not sweat it the mark one eyeball is the thing to use rather than technology.
 
#12 ·
For short distance hunting your way through coral heads in the Caribbean, though it would look odd, if your boat behaves backing up, I'd go in in reverse.. with the added bonus of generally better 'brakes'... and in the cockpit you've got the normal 'bow' perspective.

The downside would be you're also 'rudder first'... so YMMV...
 
#14 · (Edited)
hmmm with all due respect that is just not right...(man tqa came in between! jajaja) I was reffering to reversing into coral heads

if you are very very unfamiliar and your charts dont show details well...the time proven method is to scope out your area FIRST

you can:

stop heave to and scope out from the mast, sometimes even binoculars...

you can lower sails and kill engine and anchor for a while if possible

you can deploy your inflatable, or dinghy and do some reconaissance(this is what works best)


if you are so unsure still you can take a line and sounder and physically sound the areas you want to go to, a portable fishfinder like kayakers use is what comes to mind here if you can afford one they are around $100.

if still not possible then go somewhere else...dont risk boat or life by "making" some place...

goiong rudder first into coral heads IS AAAAAAAAAAAAA NOOOOOOOOOOOOOO NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

we used these methods in the red sea where there are a lot of badly charted areas...and unmarked entrances etc...

good luck
 
#16 ·
There's something called forward looking radar that can be installed on recreational boats. Talked to someone who had it on his 44-footer up in the PNW somewhere. Look it up. Not sure how much it would cost or how well it works, but it sounded cool, if you're into that techy stuff.
 
#20 ·
It's sonar, actually, and is a rather expensive add-on... While it can be effective, it becomes less so the shallower the depths become...

Forward-looking sonar could be great to have in a poorly charted region such as Labrador, or Greenland... But for visual piloting in the Caribbean, reliance on such a system to spot coral heads would be a fool's errand, seems to me...

 
#18 · (Edited)
In theory, one might mount a wireless cam on ones masthead. I suspect that wouldn't work too well however, and one would be staring at a screen when one really needs one's head out of the cockpit.

If your boat is tiller steered, one can use an arrangement that I did with an earlier boat a l-o-n-g time ago. Essentially, I rigged two lines to the tiller, one each from each side to snatch blocks on either side of the cockpit and thence led forward to the bow pulpit. There I wrapped each line around a short length of dowel to give myself hand grips. With these and our trusty/rusty Evenrude Angler outboard at dead slow, I could stand on the bow and helm myself through shallows by eye. When I came to a blind cul de sac, a good snatch threw the helm over far enough that the boat would do a fairly sharp 180º turn or just circle in place.

With the boat we have now and wheel steering, the foregoing method wouldn't work very well as the prospective range of motion of the helm would be limited. As an alternative, we anchor or my better half simply circles the boat while I reconnoiter a safe passage with our dinghy and hand held depth meter. One can mark the passage with a "breadcrumb trail" of foam cups with a length of fishing line long enough to reach the bottom, passed through the bottoms and attached to a small fishing weight. Of course, one goes back and retrieves the cups for future use with one's dinghy and simply follows the yacht's recorded tack--the "Track Back" function--on one's GPS when later departing.

FWIW...
 
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#23 ·
In theory, one might mount a wireless cam on ones masthead. I suspect that wouldn't work too well however, and one would be staring at a screen when one really needs one's head out of the cockpit.

If your boat is tiller steered, one can use an arrangement that I did with an earlier boat a l-o-n-g time ago. Essentially, I rigged two lines to the tiller, one each from each side to snatch blocks on either side of the cockpit and thence led forward to the bow pulpit. There I wrapped each line around a short length of dowel to give myself hand grips. With these and our trusty/rusty Evenrude Angler outboard at dead slow, I could stand on the bow and helm myself through shallows by eye. When I came to a blind cul de sac, a good snatch threw the helm over far enough that the boat would do a fairly sharp 180º turn or just circle in place.

With the boat we have now and wheel steering, the foregoing method wouldn't work very well as the prospective range of motion of the helm would be limited. As an alternative, we anchor or my better half simply circles the boat while I reconnoiter a safe passage with our dinghy and hand held depth meter. One can mark the passage with a "breadcrumb trail" of foam cups with a length of fishing line long enough to reach the bottom, passed through the bottoms and attached to a small fishing weight. Of course, one goes back and retrieves the cups with one's dinghy for future use and simply follows the yacht's recorded tack--the "Track Back" function--on one's GPS when later departing.

FWIW...
seems we have done very similar things bud...good stuff:D

recon is the time honored way of scoping out a possible unsafe anchorage or area...
 
#24 ·
I did warn about 'rudder' first! ;)

Anyhow agree it would be a scary idea in some ways...

As to the 'recon'... much easier/more effective today with the range of handheld sounders that are available.. it's VERY difficult to visually judge depth, even with clear water (often underestimating) and of course with murky water (can't see) A recon mission with the dinghy and a handheld can tell the tale.
 
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